Verizon Fights Back Against Mobile Phone Spam

The Register is reporting that Verizon filed two separate lawsuits earlier this week against companies it claims spammed their customers with automated telemarketing calls. In addition to seeking a cease and desist, they are also apparently seeking "monetary damages."

Comments

I wish...

[connah0047]

I wish I had to deal with phone spam instead of bad service. I signed a two year contract with Verizon and all I say on my phone all the time is, "Can you hear me now?" ...guess you can't sue them for false advertising.

Re:Easy solution to phone spam...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

That's what's being done in France and Belgium. But there's a simple reason why it works there and not in the US: it's easy for people to recognize a cell phone number. In France, a cellphone number starts with 06, in Belgium, a cellphone number has 10 digits instead of 9. This means that someone who dials such a number knows he's calling a cellphone number, and therefore knows he's gonna be hit with a higher rate.

In the US, if you charged people more to dial a number that looks exactly like a landline phone number, you'd quickly have a slew of lawsuits from people who stayed on the phone for hours, only to discover it wasn't a normal phone number and they're broke or something. That's why the cost is shared in the US: the caller pays for whatever is normally paid to call a landline phone, and you pay the difference.